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The Internet

Developing Nations Crippled By Broadband Costs 239

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the holy-crip-it's-a-crapple dept.
eldavojohn writes "If you live in the EU, you probably enjoy low broadband costs. If you live in Finland, it's even a legal right. If you live in the US, you probably pay a moderate cost. But if you live in the developing world, a UNCTAD report paints your picture pretty grim. Ridiculously high bandwidth costs are inhibiting developing nations from enjoying productive use of the internet — like online banking and market tools."

Comment Re:Incoming 1st Amendment Challenge (Score 1) 587

by KimiDalamori (#29043005) Attached to: Illinois Bans Social Network Use By Sex Offenders

I would argue that having your body penetrated against your will is an inherently violent act.

Yes, it is. However, the person you're replying to is talking about consensual intercourse where one of the participants is considered legally incompetent. That kind of rape is not violent. It is, however, still immoral and sleazy.
The Media

Don't Copy That Floppy! Gets a Sequel 523

Posted by timothy from the not-the-jailhouse-fantasy-I-signed-up-for dept.
theodp writes "Back in 1992, the SIIA released Don't Copy That Floppy!, a goofy video in which anti-piracy rapper MC Double Def DP convinces a young lad not to copy a game by appealing to his sense of right and wrong. Now, to address what it calls 'new generations and new temptations,' the SIIA has uploaded a trailer for a new anti-piracy rap video — Don't Copy That 2 — that will be released this summer. To underscore the video's it's-not-just-a-copy-it's-a-crime message, the new film is a tad darker than the original. A smug teen who's downloading files from 'Pirates Palace' and 'Tune Weasel' finds his world turned upside down when automatic weapons-toting government agents break down the door and take his Mom away in handcuffs. The teen finds himself in a prison jumpsuit forced to tattoo shirtless adult inmates who eventually turn on him, physically attack him, and make him run for his life back to his jail cell (image summarizing his plight)."

Comment English. (Score 1) 997

by KimiDalamori (#26016125) Attached to: What Programming Language For Linux Development?
No, Seriously... The programming language you learned at school is worthless, and not just for Linux, either. Soon enough, there will be a new microsoft language, or at least a new version, and everything you now know will be deprecated. All languages are like this, more or less. What makes you a good programmer is your ability to understand computers and break problems down into well-designed systems; knowing a programming language is nigh-worthless, because all you need for any arbitrary language is a week and a manual. Just pick something. It doesn't matter which language. Or which IDE. Hell, you could start with bash shell scripting, it's all the same. Fiddle around with it, and once you got a feel for it, dive right the hell in.
Space

'Death Star' Aimed at Earth 400

Posted by Zonk from the don't-destroy-earth-that's-where-i-keep-my-stuff dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A spectacular, rotating binary star system is a ticking time bomb, ready to throw out a searing beam of high-energy gamma rays that could lead to a major extinction event — and Earth may be right in the line of fire. Australian science magazine Cosmos Magazine reports: 'Though the risk may be remote, there is evidence that gamma ray bursts have swept over the planet at various points in Earth's history with a devastating effect on life. A 2005 study showed that a gamma-ray burst originating within 6,500 light years of Earth could be enough to strip away the ozone layer and cause a mass extinction. Researchers led by Adrian Melott at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, U.S., suggest that such an event may have been responsible for a mass extinction 443 million years ago, in the late Ordovician period, which wiped out 60 per cent of life and cooled the planet.'"
Upgrades

Apple QuickTime DRM Disables Video Editing Apps 448

Posted by kdawson from the what-is-this-uninstall-you-speak-of dept.
An anonymous reader writes "According to numerous posts on Apple's discussion forums (several threads of which have been deleted by Apple), as well as a number of popular video editing blogs, Apple's recent QT 7.4 update does more than just enable iTunes video rentals — it also disables Adobe's professional After Effects video editing software. Attempting to render video files after the update results in a DRM permissions error. Unfortunately, it is not possible to roll back to a previous version of QT without doing a full OSX reinstall. Previous QT updates have also been known to have severe issues with pro video editing apps."
Biotech

Submission + - Toads Mate across the Species Barrier

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Although mating with another species (hybridization) is often maladaptive and females typically avoid other species as mates, Nature magazine is reporting the first example of harsh environmental conditions driving an animal across the species barrier. When drought threatens, one species of spadefoot toad will mate with more drought resistant toads of another species so that their offspring will have the best chance of survival even if it means that those offspring will have a lower chance of reproducing successfully. One possibility is that the toads need their offspring to develop more quickly when water is in short supply and field tests confirmed that hybrid tadpoles were more likely to survive through metamorphosis in rapidly drying pools. "Females are probably assessing a lot more out there than just how long the male's tail is," says Maurice Sabelis, Professor of Population Biology at the University of Amsterdam. "They are probably more sensitive to their own condition and environment when choosing a male.""
Republicans

Submission + - Facism, Orwellian, surveilance (yahoo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This guy, and his henchmen in the white house, scare the dog poop out of me. They don't like to do their job of protecting our privacy because it interferes with their idea of freedom (it ain't really freedom) so they want to redefine the english language. Reminds me of Mr. Orwell "all are equal but some are more equal than others." Substitute freedom for equal and see what you get.
Software

Submission + - OpenDocument Foundation closes down

Submitted by
Munchkinguy
Munchkinguy writes: "First, they dropped support for their namesake OpenDocument Format and switching to W3C "Compund Document Format". Then, W3C's Chris Lilley says that CDF is "was not created to be, and isn't suitable for use as, an office format". Now, the Foundation has mysteriously shut down, leaving the following message:

The OpenDocument Foundation, Inc. is closed. We sincerely wish our friends and associates in the OpenDocument Community all the best and much success going forward. Good-bye and good luck.
"
Social Networks

Submission + - Facebook under Fire over Breastfeeding Photos (breastfeeding123.com) 4

Submitted by
NewsCloud
NewsCloud writes: "Facebook continues to struggle with when to enforce its own terms of service. While the 78,240 group members who want Facebook to shut down the F*** Islam group are still frustrated, those concerned with photos of breastfeeding mothers can rest more easily. The site has recently come under fire for removing pictures of breastfeeding mothers, and banning users on the grounds that they'd uploaded "obscene content" to their profiles. Says Facebook, "Photos containing an exposed breast do violate our Terms and are removed." In response, more than 33,431 concerned Facebook users have created the "Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!" group. Apparently, scantily clad college co-eds, fine and dandy."
Book Reviews

GIMP 2 for Photographers 471

Posted by samzenpus from the crop-better dept.
Jon Allen writes "A glance through any photography magazine will confirm that Adobe Photoshop is the accepted standard image editing software, offering almost unparalleled power and control over your images. However, costing more than many DSLR cameras, for non-professionals it can be a very hard purchase to justify (and of course for Linux users this is a moot point, as Photoshop is not available for their platform). Luckily, the free software community has provided us with an alternative. The GIMP, or Gnu Image Manipulation Program, offers a huge amount of the power of Photoshop but is available at no cost. Additionally GIMP is cross-platform, available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Unix." Read below for the rest of Jon's review.
Media

Sony BMG Says Ripping CDs is Stealing 767

Posted by CmdrTaco from the well-big-shock-here dept.
LKM writes "Sony seems to think we should not be allowed to rip CDs we own to our iPods. In fact, doing so is stealing, and we should all re-buy songs, preferably one copy for each device. Says Jennifer Pariser, the head of litigation for Sony BMG: 'When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song. Making a copy of a purchased song is just a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy'.' I guess somebody should tell Sony about all the devices Sony produces that allow this stealing to occur!"

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